Sunday, May 08, 2005

heavenly

Orlando Bloom as Balian

Finally watched "Kingdom of Heaven"! Yes, I had to sacrifice some sleep but seeing Orlando Bloom on the big screen again was well worth it. Well, what can you expect from a movie with 2 LOTR actors, 2 HP actors and 1 Star Wars actor in it! Plus Jeremy Irons and Edward Norton!

Orlando Bloom (Balian) was Legolas (as we all know) in LOTR. Guy de Lusignan (Csokas) was Celeborn in LOTR. Liam Neeson (Godfrey of Ibelin) was Qui-Gon Jin in Star Wars, David Thewlis (the Hospitaler) was Prof. Remus Lupin in Harry Potter and Brendan Gleeson (Reynald de Chatillon) is going to be Mad-Eye Moody in Harry Potter.

IMHO, Orli's acting has improved a lot from his acting in "Troy". Before I found him too "melodramatic" like an actor playing on stage instead of in front of the camera, but in his first lead-role film, he was great! *biased* =)

Great cinematography and screenplay! A movie depicting an old theme dating way back during the Crusades, but with also tackling current socially-relevant issues of religion. The battle scene reminded me of Helms' Deep, especially with that "weak spot" concept. :)

I got two fave quotable quotes from that movie. The first one is between Sybilla and Balian:

S: What will become of us?B: The world will decide.... The world always decides.

Kinda reminds me of "he universe will conspire" line from Paulo Coelho's "The Alchemist".

The next one is between Balian and the Hospitaler when he joined the battle with the Templar knights against Saladin.

B: You will go to a certain deathH: All deaths are certain. (Naks!) =)

And yes, Edward Norton did a superb performance as the Leper King Baldwin IV. I mean, even if the face did not show, you can see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice. *claps*